The methods of teaching history in grades 6-12 have changed over the last few years to be more interactive and collaborative. More and more, teaching and learning revolves around an essential triad of inquiry, primary sources, and literacy in a collaborative classroom environment. "Teaching History Today" is about placing inquiry,…

It is almost 20 years since Michael Riley first invited Key Stage 3 history teachers to 'choose and plant' their enquiry questions. Many members of the history education community have taken up that invitation, making use of overarching enquiry questions to structure students' learning. But what is meant by enquiry in this context is sometimes…

To explore questions in history and to construct historical narratives, historians work with evidence from the past. This approach to teaching history (inquiry involving the use of evidence) is an accepted part of the research on history teaching and is promoted widely in standards frameworks and practitioner publications as "good history…

The overwhelming response of history teachers to the final version of the National Curriculum (2014) was one of relief that their insistent, penetrating critique of the first draft had been heeded. Jamie Byrom shares that profound sense of relief and celebrates the achievement of the history education community in making its voice heard. However,…

For the past twelve years, the author has been teaching a lower division introductory historical methods course that uses active learning to introduce students to the issues and practices of historical methods, the "how to" of historical inquiry, research and writing. In her methods course, she is working to take into account the perspectives and…

New methods of inclucating the facts of American history into today's students are discussed. (CK)

A history course could be built around the hypothesis that capitalism, democracy, protestantism, individualism are the result of abnormal conditions caused when congested Europe discovered and began to exploit the Great Frontier; the assumption continues that when the abnormal conditions abate the world will return to a normal'' state. (JB)

This framework identifies the main ideas, major events, key individuals, and unifying themes of American history as a basis for preparing the 2010 assessment. The framework recognizes that U.S. history includes powerful ideas, common and diverse traditions, economic developments, technological and scientific innovations, philosophical debates,…

The authors describe the development and implementation in British schools of their family history project. The student and his social setting, the childhood of his parents and grandparents, and the methods of the historian are combined for effective course content. (DE)

Explains why Advanced Placement courses are not offered at Sandia Preparatory School, a college preparatory school located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Focuses on the school mission, overall philosophy, and how this relates to the history classroom in particular. (CMK)

Schools are too often places in which answers are conveyed to questions students are rarely, if ever, asked. This article offers, therefore, some examples of content--animating and throughline questions--and assessment practices that centralize questions rather than answers. While animating questions return teachers to the mysteries that excite us…

With an acute awareness of learning problems among inner-city students, the teachers in New Haven, Connecticut, modified their courses to relate to the opportunities and challenges of modern education. They reorganized the traditional, year-long, survey history courses into quarter miniunits which emphasize the inquiry approach to analyzing…

The Schools Council Project investigated current practices in teaching history, identified objectives and obstacles and carried out a program in trial schools based upon conclusions drawn from the investigation. An experimental framework for syllabus construction based first on the conceptual structure of history and second, on a taxonomy of…

World history is the topic of this issue of "History and the Social Sciences in Colorado." The major article, "Experiencing World History," concerns the content and processes of a world history curriculum developed and piloted by Utah State University. The object of the units is for the middle-class, teenage American to discover his identity in an…

The New York City social studies curriculum revision program emphasizes the teaching of basic concepts rather than the accumulation of data, providing students with necessary values and skills to cope with today's social problems. To accomplish this, the curriculum uses techniques of inquiry and discovery that aim at conceptualization and that…